Woman loses home of 71 years to WA wildfire

SEATTLE -- There is no official count, but neighbors estimate at least 30 people have lost their homes in the Winthrop and Twisp area. Ninety three-year-old Cecilia Campbell may have lost her home, but not her spirit.

"Everything in a matter of minutes just went up," said daughter-in-law Mary Campbell. "It is everything… everything that makes you who you are is in five minutes, gone."

The Campbell family built the home in 1943. Ninety-three-year-old Cecilia Campbell raised her five children there, tended to the farm, and on Thursday watch 71 years go up in flames.

"It was coming probably 40 miles an hour down that other side of the creek," she said. "I just had the clothes on my back and my granddaughter they were packing pictures up."

"In my mind I couldn't believe it was gonna burn," she said. "You just can't absorb that it's going to do that much damage."

Her son Bob did all he could. With a backhoe and a water pump they fought valiantly.

"It was pretty fast moving, with sparks blowing in front of it, and that's what got us in trouble," he said.

"And then it just swept everything," said Mary.

In one afternoon the Campbells lost their mother's house, and their sister's house. Flames came close to Mary and Bob's home, but it was spared.